A state prison inmate will be allowed to pursue one claim against officials at a Schuylkill County facility, a three-judge Commonwealth Court panel has ruled.
In a 16-page opinion filed Friday, the panel ruled Stephen Palmer, 40, of Philadelphia, should be allowed a chance to prove officials at State Correctional Institution/Mahanoy were negligent when property belonging to him disappeared from his regular cell while he was in a restrictive housing unit.
“Where an inmate alleges negligence resulting in damage to property in the care, custody or control of prison employees, sovereign immunity will not bar the action,” Judge Robert Simpson wrote.
Palmer alleged prison officials either lost or stole a desk lamp and two packs of typewriter ribbons in October 2014.
Simpson wrote that sovereign immunity, the traditional bar against lawsuits against governments and their officials, state employees cannot be sued except when that defense is specifically waived by law.
However, the state has specifically waived sovereign immunity for negligent actions, he wrote.
In his lawsuit, furthermore, Palmer made specific allegations about the lost property and who had control of it, according to Simpson.
“We cannot say Palmer’s negligence claim is frivolous,” he wrote.
Simpson also wrote that Palmer failed to state a recognizable claim under federal law, leaving the negligence action as the only one available to him.
Judge Michael H. Wojcik and Senior Judge Dan Pellegrini, the other panel members, joined in Simpson’s opinion.
Palmer is serving a life sentence after being convicted and sentenced on Nov. 2, 2001, in Philadelphia County Court of first-degree murder and related crimes.